“We need more books like MAID, with the view from behind the fridge and under the couch. Stephanie Land has something to teach us about both sides of the inequality divide. Neither is what you are expecting."

—Barbara EhrenreichNew York Times Bestselling Author ofNickel and Dimed

“We need more books like MAID, with the view from behind the fridge and under the couch. Stephanie Land has something to teach us about both sides of the inequality divide. Neither is what you are expecting.”

—Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times Bestselling Author of Nickel and Dimed

My passion is giving a voice to the working poor in America. My writing is fueled by my own experiences, of struggling to put myself through college and start a career as a single mother. I aspire to use my stories to expose the reality of what it’s like to pursue the American Dream while being held back at the poverty line.

While I fought to balance multiple domestic labor jobs, college, and caring for my daughter alone, I spent years in the tangled web of government assistance. Writing was my outlet, my connection to the world outside mine, and most often a lifeline. I wrote to remember the beauty in quiet moments in our simple life. But I also wanted to document our struggles for the day I could use it to cut through the overgrowth of deep-rooted stigmas and allow a light to illuminate the hardships of people who are barely scraping by. Too often these stories aren’t being told. I want to change that.

It took a lot of guts, blind ambition, and tenacity to pursue a career in writing, but I had to make it, for my daughters and for myself. Since graduating college in 2014, I have made my living as a freelance writer, author, and teacher. I share my story not to boast, but in the hopes that others might believe it’s possible for them.

Many of my stories have gone viral in publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and Vox. My forthcoming memoir, MAID, explores both the hidden underbelly of upper-middle class America, and my own struggle to make a life for my first daughter and me, as a domestic worker with dreams of better things.

I hope to continue raising my voice, speaking up for people who are struggling to make ends meet like I did for so long. Thank you for listening, and for being here. I can’t wait to share my book with you. Until then, you can sign up below to get notes from me about my journey with my memoir MAID.

MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

On Sale January 29, 2019

Featuring a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich.

In my forthcoming memoir from Hachette, I tell my story of juggling several housecleaning clients while working my way through college as a single mother. We were barely scraping by, struggling through a system of government assistance that more often pulls poor people back into poverty rather than lifting them out.

I hope this book changes the stigmas that surround single mothers, especially those living in poverty. The stigmas that say we somehow deserve hardship because of horrible decisions we made to get us there. I hope people see how hard we work to make ends meet, and how fiercely we love our kids. How much we struggle to be enough while the government scolds us, telling us we’re becoming dependent on things they call hand-outs but we call means to survive. I hope that even though it’s just my story, that readers will start seeing the millions of single parents, domestic workers, and those who are working so hard to make ends meet in spite of people calling them lazy or even thieves. I hope that changing those stigmas is part of my story, the part of our story, that lasts.

In my mind, the scene of the accident was always the same. It didn’t clearly make sense how it happened, but that didn’t matter. When it played out behind my closed eyelids, I saw my truck, a late-Eighties Toyota 4Runner, stopped…

Minimalism is a virtue only when it’s a choice, and it’s telling that its fan base is clustered in the well-off middle class. For people who are not so well off, the idea of opting to have even less is not really an option.

At the start of my 10-minute break during a two-hour writing workshop, I looked down to check my phone. I had three missed calls and five text messages, all from the friend who was supposed to be watching my daughter.

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When ⁦@r_prior⁩ put me in his film Forgotten Plague in 2014 I was not severely ill. Since then my condition has fallen under the severe category of #MECFS. Seeing as today is #SevereME day, Please read his essay and share. https://t.co/el7ukdqsPw